Thank you for coverage on refugees and Karen Middleton’s article (“Deadline betrayal”, May 27-June 2). I could scream, however, at the mainstream media’s willingness to play the “look over there” game. Yes, announcing the deadline for asylum seekers to submit claims serves no apparent practical purpose. It nicely labelled those not previously allowed to put in their claims as probably con artists. Rather than guess the immigration minister’s motives, therefore, let’s just look at timing and effect. The Papua New Guinean authorities and those on the ground have rejected Peter Dutton’s claims about yet another life-threatening attack on detainees. It comes after his attempt to discredit detainees has been shown to be unwarranted and in the week when the senate is examining the incident. We have just learnt the illegal (according to PNG) centre is being demolished with no resolution of the fate of the people there. We know how difficult it can be to get two stories on related subjects to run in the media. Lo and behold Manus Island is now off the Australian media radar. Your coverage has been hugely important. Keep blipping, Saturday Paper.

– Annette Green, via email

Dickson has solution for Dutton

Mr Dutton dumps on the refugees and asylum seekers and he dumps on Australia’s most respected public-funded ABC (Editorial, “Tinfoil witch trials”, May 27-June 2). He thinks Q&A is a waste of taxpayers’ money and doesn’t like the direction it’s given by Tony Jones. Well, I think Mr Dumpon is a waste of taxpayers’ money and I don’t like the direction he is taking on refugees, asylum seekers and the ABC, and I would exhort all those in his electorate to do Australia a big favour and “dump” him in the next election.

– Les Lloyd, Noosaville, Qld

Ode to Schapelle

Oh, Schapelle, I love you

With your bright blue eyes

And your ambiguity

Innocence. Guilt.

Your cage of freedom

A catherine wheel spinning

Sympathy and contempt

We came for you

With cameras on poles

Your head on a spike

And you played us for chumps

Well done

Instagram heaven awaits

Laneways of roses and potato chips

I even like it that the dogs you left

Were so ugly

– Hugh Riminton, Pyrmont, NSW

A warning from ancient Greece

One would have hoped the name “Plutus” for one of their subcontractors handling hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ money might have raised at least one eyebrow at the Australian Taxation Office (Mike Seccombe, “The adventures of Plutus cash”, May 27-June 2). Plutus, the Greek god of wealth, was, after all, a leading character in the Aristophanes satire on corruption in ancient Athens. But then again, no one seems much bothered by the brimming store of Peter Dutton statements that read like a textbook profile of the authoritarian personality. Along with his visceral hostility to those whose views he doesn’t share, his wife has admitted he sees things in a kind of Manichean monochrome, i.e. black and white. After Trump, we should probably be more careful.

– John Hayward, Weegena, Tas

Work changes not immigrants’ fault

Con Vaitsas’s points are well made (Letters, “We need to talk about immigration”, May 27-June 2), but the connection government and commentators on the topic don’t like to make is the inexorable rates of de-skilling being experienced in many areas. This, if everyone is honest about it and wanting to start solving it, leads on to discussion of a universal basic income of some sort, rather than robodebting those who find themselves in need of assistance. Tim Dunlop’s Why the Future Is Workless at least tries to bring this discussion up to date, and to expose the issue to debate. Immigrants, if we’re not careful – and independent of arrival levels/rates – can easily become scapegoats for the effects of an underlying dynamic to which they do not bear a causal relationship. Oh, but they’re an easy target when it comes to an election.

– Paul Keig, Wahroonga, NSW

Holding on to Turnbull

I was astonished to read in Paul Bongiorno’s excellent article (“Shorten given Albo room”, May 27-June 2), that Peter Dutton could be in line for the leadership of the Liberal Party. Is this the same Peter Dutton described in a survey of 1100 doctors as the worst minister for health in 35 years? Is this the same Peter Dutton who as minister for immigration has presided over the most inhumane treatment of asylum seekers in recent history? Is the party so bereft of talent this incompetent minister could seriously be considered as an alternative leader? It is little wonder that, in spite of his lacklustre performance, the party is still clinging to Malcolm Turnbull as leader. The alternative is too frightening to contemplate.

– Arvi Biela, Gordon, ACT

By the time I get to Wichita

I was looking for some “light relief” after articles on the Sydney siege, a $165 million tax fraud, Dutton’s deadline, The Donald’s world tour and the Dutton editorial. Fortunately, former Hoodoo Gurus frontman Dave Faulkner didn’t disappoint with his piece on Jimmy Webb looking back (“Wichita lines man”, May 27-June 2). A fascinating insight into the brilliance of a man who wrote the songs that pressed the soundtrack of my life.

– Allan Gibson, Cherrybrook, NSW

Letters are welcome: [email protected]
Please include your full name and address and a daytime telephone number.
Letters may be edited for length and content, and may be published in print and online. Letters should not exceed 150 words.

This article was first published in the print edition of The Saturday Paper on
Jun 3, 2017.
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Karen Middleton
The government ignored security agency advice on amendments to the medivac bill, allowing it to accuse Labor of undermining border security.Pezzullo’s Monday evidence suggests the government was alerted to the repatriation issue well before Labor’s amendments were drafted and it did not act.

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Despite narrow legal grounds for concealing documents under our freedom of information laws, government agencies routinely refuse to release them. Appeals are long and costly. Final decisions may take years and challenging decisions to refuse access to documents – as in this case – can run to many, many thousands of dollars. The cost is too high for most, and so the information remains hidden and unpublished.

Paul Bongiorno
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Perhaps once the Paladin contract story could have toppled a minister. This week, it was almost overshadowed by a parade of other scandals – the 2000 Centrelink robocall deaths; the Helloworld travel scandal; the revelation both Michael Keenan and Michaelia Cash refused to give witness statements to the Australian Federal Police over the Australian Workers’ Union raid tipoffs; the apparent leaking of security advice to The Australian, which was then misrepresented.

As the Federal Court prepares to make a ruling on the AWU raids, and it emerges Michaelia Cash refused to give a statement to the federal police over her office’s involvement, The Saturday Paper reviews the minister’s position to date.

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Peter Hanlon
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Karen Middleton
The government ignored security agency advice on amendments to the medivac bill, allowing it to accuse Labor of undermining border security.Pezzullo’s Monday evidence suggests the government was alerted to the repatriation issue well before Labor’s amendments were drafted and it did not act.

Jenny Valentish
Advocates of psychedelic drug research are hoping the psilocybin trial for treating anxiety in the terminally ill, at Melbourne’s St Vincent’s Hospital, is the beginning of a new acceptance for the potential of the field.

Royce Kurmelovs
While the royal commission into aged care has begun by exposing distressing cases of neglect, experts warn that it is the generations currently unaffected – and uninterested – who must become engaged in order for standards to improve.

Katherine Gillespie
Amid the spectacularly divisive response to Kristen Roupenian’s short story about a relationship gone wrong, the author’s conception of “Cat Person” as horror fiction was often overlooked. Here, she talks about reasserting her genre credentials with the release of her debut collection. “The temptation would be to turn the book into 11 stories about dating from the perspective of young women. So I was grateful that editors recognised it was a weird, dark collection of essentially horror stories. They let it be what it was.”

Jennifer Robinson
Despite narrow legal grounds for concealing documents under our freedom of information laws, government agencies routinely refuse to release them. Appeals are long and costly. Final decisions may take years and challenging decisions to refuse access to documents – as in this case – can run to many, many thousands of dollars. The cost is too high for most, and so the information remains hidden and unpublished.

Paul Bongiorno
No longer confident it controls the parliament of Australia, the Morrison government has shut it down for the next six weeks. And no wonder: it is reeling from revelations of cronyism, incompetence and profligate, unaccountable spending. Scott Morrison’s only defence was to accuse Labor of having its head in the “chum bucket”. If he is right, the bucket is his and he will have to do a lot of hard work to expunge the stench before the May election.

Ladislaus Meissner, also known as Joe Meissner, of “Love Boat” notoriety has, after a decent interval, resurfaced. Joe has moved on from his days in the 1980s as secretary of the Enmore branch of the Labor Party and former world karate champion when his putt-putt, the Kanzen, hosted riotous onboard parties, where politicians mingled with even shadier figures. Virginia Perger, a sex worker, said she had slept with the adorable Graham Richardson on board the Kanzen only to withdraw her statement, after much thought.

Perhaps once the Paladin contract story could have toppled a minister. This week, it was almost overshadowed by a parade of other scandals – the 2000 Centrelink robocall deaths; the Helloworld travel scandal; the revelation both Michael Keenan and Michaelia Cash refused to give witness statements to the Australian Federal Police over the Australian Workers’ Union raid tipoffs; the apparent leaking of security advice to The Australian, which was then misrepresented.

As the Federal Court prepares to make a ruling on the AWU raids, and it emerges Michaelia Cash refused to give a statement to the federal police over her office’s involvement, The Saturday Paper reviews the minister’s position to date.

During the ’90s there was barely a glossy magazine that didn’t feature Karl Lagerfeld draped in supermodels. His death this weekoffers a chance to reflect on the fashion powerhouse’s influence on design, style and feminine sophistication.

Peter Hanlon
Trainer Darren Weir’s fall from grace over the possession of electronic shock devices has stunned horse-racing enthusiasts both here and overseas. But could it help efforts to clean up the sport?